Android PDF Scanner: 9 Best PDF Scanner Apps for Android

Traditional scanners all are now facing the threat to be replaced by smartphones and tablets since they have developed strong features. High-end Android devices are almost equipped with high-resolution cameras which can be used to scan your paper files and convert them to PDF file at the same time. Why don't people want to buy a professional scanner? Let's assume this: It is quite convenient and useful when you need to scan a certain paper file with no proper scanner at hand. Or the reason can be quite simple, sometimes people just don't want to spend so much money on a professional scanner.

However, this doesn't mean that PDF scanner isn't needed. You still need one to keep the paper files in organizing so that there won't be clutter all over the place. You can also use this machine to keep brochures, receipts, pamphlets or other paper files in store. So we will recommend 9 best PDF scanner for Android devices. All of them can be located in the Google Play Store. The features of apps vary from each other, you would definitely find what caters your needs most. And for your information, most of the apps are free to download and install.

CamScanner – Scan & Share PDF Files

CamScanner is the first app we recommend that enables you to scan and share the files. You are able to scan physical files such as notes, pamphlets or receipts and convert them into PDF file. The outcomes scanned by this app are particular clear thanks to its features called smart cropping and auto enhancing.

The interface of this app is a library where you can keep the files you have scanned. You can click to preview the item you want in the library. You can hit the magnifying glass icon on the upper side of the interface to locate a PDF file. If you want to take the screenshot, you only have to hit the camera down at the bottom of the interface. You can choose to edit your photo by hitting the gear. Here you are free to reset items such as sound, spirit level, flash, image orientation or size, etc. when the program recognizes your borders, you can select modes such as auto, lighten, gray mode original, magic color, and black and white for your image. You can also adjust the brightness and contrast figure of the image.

Advantages:
1. The interface is nice and neatly-designed.
2. Easy to handle
3. Auto enhancing feature improves the quality of scanning images
4. Multiple professional features to fulfill both private and business needs

Disadvantage:

1. You have to pay for some particular features such as Optical Character Recognition or knew as OCR. With it, you can take texts out of images But in order to experience this feature, you have to pay $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year.
2. The images come out of free version of this app will be watermarked as: “Generated by CamScanner” right at the bottom of every page.
3. The app is not ad-free.

Handy Scanner Free PDF Creator

You are also allowed to scan docs with your Android device if you using Handy Scanner. You can export files easily with it. When you finish scanning and want to share the target PDF file through Google Drive, Dropbox, Bluetooth or email, you can select to save them as PDF or JPEG. Optical Character Recognition is also a great feature available for you when you share docs to Google Docs.

When you open the app, you are able to preview all the documents you have scanned earlier. There is a camera button at the bottom of the screen. You can take photos of the document and scan it by clicking it. When you are trying to scan a document, you can use flashlight or grid according to your needs. Then the app will recognize the edges of the document and start to crop the image. After scanning, you can edit the image using multiple filters such as grayscale, print-ready, black and white, color and contrast enhancement.

Advantages:
1. After taking a picture of the document, you are allowed to edit it by cropping and filtering.
2. Both taking photo directly with the app and importing photos from outsourcing are available for you. Imported photos can also be cropped and you are still able to use filters to adjust your image. They are allowed to be scanned to PDF file.

Disadvantage:
1.There will be annoying ads along with the opening of the free trial version. If you want to get rid of the ads, you have to update your app the premium version which is not free anymore.
2.Only twenty documents are allowed to be taken with the free trail version.

Droid Scan Pro PDF

You can try Droid Scan Pro PDF to turn your physical document into digital as well. The menu of this app includes the following functions: Settings, Capture,Import, Scans, About and Feedback. Capture is for you to take photos of the documents. When the scanning is done, the app will automatically crop the image to a proper size. There are several resolution modes for you to choose: low, medium, high and ultra. Import is to add outsource pictures into the app.Google Drive, Dropbox, or photos from your camera library are all fully supported.

You can preview all the scanned images in the column scans. You can export selected images as PDF or JPEG format here. There is a convert button at the downside of the app. You can edit the image once more if you want. What's more, you are allowed to move,remove or reorder the images here in Scans.

Disadvantages:
1.The finished images appear to be darker than the original one. However, future update maybe able to solve this problem.

Quick PDF Scanner – Free

Now we are going to introduce Quick PDF Scanner, an app from Google Play Store enables you to scan and share PDF files easily. There are two buttons in the main interface of the app for two functions. One is to import images to the app, the other is to take pictures of the documents. Down at the interface, you can check your scanned pictures. You can import photos from your camera library directly or could storage such as Google Drive and Dropbox. When you hit the capture button, you will be brought to the camera and get ready to take pictures. When the app finishes scanning, it will crop the image automatically.

There are multiple editing tools along with this app for you when you are done the scanning. Filter choices such as vintage, punch, bleach, latte, instant, black and white, blue,x-process and litho. In addition, you can adjust the advanced settings including contrast, vignette, auto color, exposure and shadows in the app.

Advantages:
1.The app is nicely and fashionably designed.
2.The speed of scanning is fast. Multiple filter choices are also convenient to use.
You can import pictures regardless of the formats of the pictures: GIF, BMP, WEBP, PNG and JPEG are all supported.

Disadvantages:
1.The app sometimes crashes due to system bugs.
2.You will see banner ads at the end of the screen.

Genius Scan For PDF

Genius Scan is an app allowing Android users to take shots of your documents and convert them to PDF or JPEG. The most attractive feature of this app is that it can detect the borders of the page and correct the view automatically. There will be two options appearing in the main interface when you open the app. Images lie in the center of the main screen. When a document is taken picture of , the app will lead you to the Scan tab. You can transfer the file to the Document tab afterwards.

There is a camera button down at the bottom of the interface. When the scanning part is over, the app will decide which part is redundant and crop the image for you. You are able to adjust the black and white or color figure of the photo. You can also rotate the image to the left or right side as you wish. At last, if you want to share the completed documents to others, you can email the file as PDF or JPEG formats easily.

Advantages:
1.The interface of this app is beautiful and friendly which makes the using experience a lot easier.
2.Come with proper editing features and get rid of redundant functions. It is quite convenient for people who have no complicated purpose of editing the image and just want to scan one document as fast as it could.

Disadvantages:
1. If users require advanced features such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR), they may have to turn to other apps.
2. There are only a few editing tools of the scanned file. advanced features can not be found in the app.
3. If you are using free trial version of this app, notice that cloud service like Box, Dropbox and Evernote is not available.
4. Free trial version is not ad free

Tiny Scan – PDF Files Scanner

You can make your Android device a scanner with the help of Tiny Scan. It is a free app which you can get from Google Play. You can improve the quality of the scanned image with the various modes of the app. All the finished images will be shown in the main interface. You can either select grid or list view according to your choice. The images can be categorized by title or the date they were created. You will see two buttons at the bottom, the first one is camera and the other one is to import the images. When the scanning process is done, the app will detect the borders of the document and start cropping right away. Then you can choose the size of the page depending on your needs. The size available: letter, A3, A4, legal and business card. You can also select the filters as you wish.

Advantages:
1. Fast scanning and converting speed.
2. The quality of scanned images is high
3. This free app is completely ad-free unlike other free apps.

Disadvantages:
1. If you want to share the scanned file, only email is available. Could services such as Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive and Box are not supported.

PDF Scanner FREE

You are allowed to scan a paper document into a digital one with the help of PDF Scanner Free.This app can be downloaded from Google Play for free and it supports all Android devices as long as it has a camera. You can view all the finished files in the main interface of the app. There are five buttons in the menu at the downside. Recent means all the images just scanned are saved here. Options is where you are able to reset the figures of the image. You can choose screen orientation or change the language as you wish. You can click on the third button to save the PDF image and export the file. The fourth button is used to add images from your camera library. The last button is for you to take shots of the documents.

The process of scanning can be easily done by hitting the capture button. The app has border detection technique which enables you to crop the photo and get rid of useless parts when you are taking a picture of a document. There are several filters for you to choose: original, black and white. You can also adjust the brightness and contrast by yourself.

Advantages:
1. The app is easy to use and it produces high quality images. Texts are clear and easy to read.
2. The app is simple to handle and the quality of scanned images are usually high. You are able to read without obstacles.
3. Advanced functions such as OCR are available in this app. Over fifty languages are supported.
4. Cloud services including Dropbox, Google Drive and Box are fully open to you.Disadvantages:
1. When the app is detecting the document, it is not always accurate. The app may fail to recognize the borders of the document even the document is quite different from the background.
2. You will see lots of ads in the app because it is a free app.

My Scans – PDF Doc Scanner

My Scans is one of the free PDF document scanner in Google Play. The app is able to detect the borders of one document and scan it to PDF format automatically. You can find all the scanned images in the home page. You can add a photo to the hone page by clicking the icon on the left top side of the app. Then it will detect the borders of the document to crop easily.

Advantages:
1. If you have loads of scanned files, this app enables you to organize and categorize the files to various folders. You can easily manage them.
2. The image comes out of the scanner is of high quality. The app has an accurate technique to detect the borders of the paper document so that the files can be scanned properly.

Disadvantages:
1. You have less editing tools than other scanners. Only rotating and cropping features are available in this app. If you are looking for advance editing feature, you may not be able to achieve.
2. Every file scanned will be watermarked. If you want to get rid of the watermark, you have to but the premium version..
3. The app is not ad free. Both banner ads and full screen ads will appear in front of you. You have to shut them down by clicking the crossing icon every time manually.

Camera 2 PDF

Camera 2 PDF can also fulfill your needs of scanning and converting docs. You can find the files you have scanned in the main interface of the app. There is an adding button down at the bottom which enables you to add an image from your camera library or directly take a picture with the camera. You can crop the picture to get rid of the redundant part after it is taken,click a button to change color and rotate the image as you want.

Advantages:
1. Use file folders t keep the documents categorized and organized.
2. High security is what makes this app outstanding too. You are allowed to create a PIN code to keep others away from your personal and private documents.
3. The app has unlimited cloud storage space. You can sync your PDF files up to the cloud. The prerequisite is to register an account on camera2pdf.com which is free.Disadvantages:
1. You may encounter system crash or lags time to time when you are using this app. It may take you quite a long time to respond to your clicking sometimes.
2. Flash is not available for you when you are taking photos. It is quite an important feature when the environment is dark.